The Distillation

Times have certainly changed in North America with Canada being the first G7 country to federally regulate their cannabis market after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made regulation a campaign promise. Canadians are opting for a state controlled system focused on child protection, complete with age checks, quality control, and aimed at breaking links between the drug trade and organised crime.

Eight US states have now fully legalised cannabis, with many more operating under decriminalised or medical marijuana models. Italy is also forging ahead its own approach, where the army has been tasked with growing high-quality medical cannabis and dispensing the finished product to pharmacies. If that’s not enough then there’s also the example of what’s been happening in Israel – their pioneering research into the medical applications of cannabis is perhaps unparalleled, but Israel are now formally decriminalising cannabis so that police can redirect their resources.

Sen. Wyden said, "The federal government must respect the decision Oregonians made at the polls and allow law-abiding marijuana businesses to go to the bank just like any other legal business. This three-step approach will spur job growth and boost our economy all while ensuring the industry is being held to a fair standard."

The Small Business Tax Equity Act "would treat state-legal marijuana businesses like other small businesses," meaning they would be taxed like other small businesses... the Responsibly Addressing the Marijuana Policy Gap Act would remove "federal criminal penalties and civil asset forfeiture for individuals and businesses complying with state law," and allow access to "banking, bankruptcy protection, marijuana research and advertising" for cannabis businesses...the final part of the package, the Marijuana Revenue and Regulation Act, would "impose an excise tax" on cannabis products, similar to the tax currently on alcohol and tobacco products, "escalating annually to a top rate equal to 25 percent of the sales price."

An infamous Arizona pharmaceutical company that spent a half million dollars fighting the state’s marijuana legalization efforts has... received approval from the DEA for its synthetic substitute for the natural plant...the only other product manufactured by Insys, Subsys, is an oral form of the powerful painkiller fentanyl. Fentanyl, in its various forms, is responsible for thousands of overdose deaths in the ongoing opioid abuse epidemic in the United States....In December 2016, former Insys CEO Michael Babich and six other Insys executives were arrested for allegedly bribing doctors to prescribe the drug and defrauding insurance providers as part of their aggressive promotion to push sales of Subsys. The case is still pending.

In 2016, Insys donated $500,000 to Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, a group campaigning against Proposition 205, which would have legalized adult recreational use of marijuana in Arizona. The proposition failed to pass by a 52 percent-48 percent vote in last November’s election. During the campaign, the company said the measure wouldn’t “protect the safety of Arizona’s citizens.” Interestingly, Syndros has been determined by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to have a higher potential for abuse than Marinol. The DEA, in its announcement of the approval of Syndros, noted “HHS stated that the abuse potential of dronabinol oral solution is similar to that of other THC containing products such as concentrates, infused edibles and drinks.”

"Now, those cabinets also include naloxone [an opiate overdose medication], an antidote for people who are overdosing on opioids like heroin. Given as an injection or a nasal spray, naloxone can quickly revive someone who is not breathing. The city keeps it in every nurse’s office, including in its elementary schools."

But the numbers of young people dying from overdoses around the country is striking. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015, opioids killed 7,163 people between the ages of 15 and 29, more than 20 percent of total deaths. And as communities across the country face this swell of death from heroin and pills, schools see the epidemic lapping at their doorsteps — killing friends, neighbors, recent graduates. Educators are increasingly deciding that they should have naloxone on hand.

From the Article: In School Nurse’s Room: Tylenol, Bandages and an Antidote to HeroinPublished by: New York TimesOriginal Link :https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/nyregion/in-naloxone-heroin-schools-room-overdose-antidote.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-shareArtwork Fair Use:By SVG derived by me from File:US timeline. Heroin deaths.jpg, which was derived from National Institute on Drug Abuse. And User:Timeshifter. User: Timeshifter cropped the original chart, and added "USA" to it. User:Timeshifter put the adapted chart under the same public domain license. See Commons:Convert tables and charts to wiki code or image files, and the section about adding text to chart images. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“There’s no scientific reason to believe that somebody is better off being completely miserable and sober than using cannabis occasionally, or even fairly regularly, as an adult and being functional and happy and productive,” said Dr. Reiman, an unpaid consultant with High Sobriety, who added, “Using cannabis is a relatively safe practice."

“Every single treatment center knows it, and we know it,’’ Mr. Welch said. “Some of us have had the same clients, five, 10, 15 times over. We say: ‘We just can’t reach Billy, we just can’t reach Joe.’” Why not, he said, try marijuana to help take the edge off for clients who “can’t face the emotional threshold” of abstinence. “People are dying,” he said. His co-founder, Joe Schrank, argued that marijuana will not kill patients as opiates do. But it does help clients sleep, relax and develop an appetite. The drug, he said, gives addicts some sense of emotional control.

"I don’t need clinical studies to convince me ayahuasca is good medicine, that it’s helping people, but you can publish them [and it’s] a good way to convince skeptical colleagues in biomedicine"

Is it ethical to try and take a medicine like this and stuff it into a biomedical research structure? Is that the right way to approach it? I’m not saying that it is and I’m not saying that it isn’t. I just think that we have to be clear that there are aspects here of taking something out of its traditional context. Can it be used that effectively in biomedicine, or do you need the ceremonial ambience?" -Dennis McKenna

"The legal victory in a small Spanish city is a great step for the legitimacy of the use of coca leaf, an ancestral practice that today has been recognized by a Spanish court."

The unprecedented resolution of a court case for coca leaf imports took place yesterday at the Provincial Court of Girona. F.T., a Colombian citizen living in Spain was acquitted of charges of drug trafficking after a large display of evidence and arguments about the historical, cultural, social and medicinal value of the coca leaf..."The consumption of coca leaf is incomparable to the consumption of cocaine. There is no scientific evidence that chewing coca leaves is harmful to health. Rather, there is increasing evidence to the contrary, for example, its effect as a stabilizer of blood glucose levels, a benefit of paramount importance with numerous medical applications, "said Dr. José Carlos Bouso, Scientific Director of ICEERS Foundation.

The new law expands the country's authorized coca plantation zones to 22,000 hectares (55,000 acres) from the previous 12,000 hectares. The coca plant has many traditional uses in the Andes, including as a remedy for altitude sickness. When chewed, its leaves also provide mild stimulation and can suppress thirst and hunger.

...[in Brazil] the potion itself was legalised in the 1992, after studies found it had positive effects on religious communities who drink the “tea” as their sacrament.

Ayahuasca is also considered a medicine – even “the great medicine” of the Amazon basin. It has intense purgative effects and may work against parasites, as well as other disease agents...On the other hand, most who have drunk ayahuasca, including myself, believe that the value of the medicine – its utility for both physical and psychological healing – will ultimately overcome the tendency toward misuse and manipulation...

J. Hamilton Hudson, a lawyer based in the US, and ayahuasca advocate which is dedicated to protecting those who use the drug for religious reasons, and counsels those who are concerned about crackdowns.

Ayahuasca can be used positively when it is used as a sacrament. That is, used for divine communion within the context of an institutionalised ritual with a framework for integration. There are some other ways ayahuasca can be used positively, too, like in the treatment of depression. In fact, there are a lot of ways ayahuasca can be used positively...The right legislation enables people to use ayahuasca for religious ceremonies, but it sets the standard so that people are not doing shoddy, chaotic, and sloppy ceremonies without frameworks for integration.

ECfES

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